Friday, 18 June 2010

The great thing about being able to dedicate my life to pike on the fly, is being around people who approach the sport differently to the way I do. Seeing how the English teams differed from the Dutch teams approach during the tournament not only with the different flies they were using but by the way they retrieved their flies was particularly interesting. Rowland who I class as a really good friend now also had his own take on proceedings which was refreshing to witness. Most of Rowlands flies were weighted in some way by means of dumbell eyes or heavily epoxied heads. These maybe okay for slightly deeper conditions for lakes in Canada but here around Replot where water depths very rarely exceed 4 meters aren't as effective as say flies that can be fished just below the surface. Replot is littered with thick weed beds.....you just have to locate them. Fishing with heavily weighted flies becomes frustrating especially when fishing over weed beds as your constantly getting snagged up in them and you usually end up having to clean your fly after every cast. This is why I like to a floating fly with an intermediate line here. Floating line with a slightly weighted fly just doesn't have the same effect purely because the floating line generally gets dragged under with the size flies we use in the sport anyway.

Another aspect I've noticed since moving here to Finland is the use of extra long flies and how un effective they are here during Spring & Summer. Most of the fish I catch are caught on small flies around 100mm long,so when Rowland gave me a couple of these flies 300 mm beasts to be precise (This one) & the bottom one before he left I knew I'd have to wait till September before I could use them. Most of the weed beds will have died off and I can fish with them then in slightly deeper water, coupled with that but the fish are probably at their most aggressive in the Autumn so larger flies are at their most effective here on the Baltic.

I cant remember what the wing material was but the main tail is a combination of long tinsel flash blended with Big fly fiber. They weigh practically bugger all and will be a blast to cast in September & October. Thanks for these Rowland,I'll be putting them to good use mate!